1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of robotic surgery, namely, full or partial automation of surgical tasks.
2. Description of the Related Art
What is available in the market as so called “robotic surgery” is typically robot-assisted surgery because the surgeon and the robot interact through a master-slave paradigm. The slave robot is constrained to follow direct commands from the surgeon master with little autonomy. While this method is reliable, it constrains the speed and dexterity of the slave robot to that of the surgeon. None of the currently available invasive surgical systems utilize true automation during the procedure. Moreover, no previous approach combines both visible light images with other modalities to control the robot.